Click on this link to send a letter to Gillibrand demanding that she help the community of Minisink!! Its fast and easy and you won’t get spam emails from this site.

Minisink familes traveled a long distance with very young kids to come into the city and let her know that we need her help and her staff couldn’t even come down to meet the group and receive the letter. If you agree this is shameful call her office and let them know!!

Everyone please place a quick call to 212-688-6262, ask and share with us the Senator’s positions on these two important matters.

Will the Senator stand with the people of Minisink and work to shut down and remove the 12,250hp Natural Gas Compressor Station in a precedent setting act of leadership.

Will the Senator stand and call for an expansion of the public comment period and for increased public hearings relating to the proposed Liberty LNG Gas Port.

Here is an article by the organization ‘Take Part’ about March rally against the Minisink Compressor Station:

Knock, Knock: Your New Neighbor Might Be a Neurotoxin
With the decision to frack New York’s shale deposits on hold while the state’s health commissioner seeks more details on its impacts, the fight over natural gas continues in other areas of the Empire State.

One hotbed is Minisink, population 4,400 and home to many 9/11 first responders. Here, a plan to build a natural gas compressor station in the town’s epicenter has drawn the ire of many locals.

The $43 million station is part of the massive NiSource/Millenium Pipeline project, which, if completed, would extend from Canada through the Hudson Valley and into New York City. The reality is that with 26 percent of the country’s energy coming from natural gas, it must be delivered somehow, no matter where it originates.

Pramilla Malick and Asha Canalos, of the grassroots group Stop MCS, tell TakePart that their biggest problem with the station is location. There are nearly 200 homes within a half mile of the current site of the compressor station, which was chosen over an alternate that’s nearly a mile from the closest home. The group is appealing to a federal court in an effort to get construction stopped.

Natural gas proponents see the fossil fuel as a clean “bridge” between coal and alternatives, including wind, solar and geothermal. President Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and many mainstream environmentalists are very vocally “for” natural gas expansion.

NiSource Inc., the company that is building the Minisink station, contends that growth in natural gas use over coal is already improving air quality in populated parts of the country, including the Northeast.

I caught up with Malick and Canalos in the days after a recent protest.CLICK HERE to read the full interview

Representatives from grassroots groups across several states will be in Washington, D.C. Thursday to attend a public meeting of a federal commission. They will also be there to protest what they call the agency’s rubber-stamping of natural-gas infrastructure projects.

The Day of Action comes under the banner of “We the People Matter ”, a new organization, and web site, that connects several grassroots groups that Asha Canalos says are fighting similar battles – the agency’s track record of approving natural-gas infrastructure projects despite citizen opposition.

Canalos is with the group “Stop the Minisink Compressor Station”, which is protesting the natural-gas compressor station well under construction in Orange County’s Hamlet of Westtown, where many 9/11 first responders reside. She and her fellow petitioners are waiting for a full hearing of their case currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals, a case that challenges FERC’s approval of the project. FERC is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

For the full article WAMC Northeast Public Radio and to hear the interview please CLICK HERE

It is pretty easy to see why Minisink residents have been fighting for about 19 months to stop the construction of the Minisink Compressor Station. The image below was posted in the past, easily proves our point, and we believe needs to be seen again as a reminder. Why construct a compressor station in the middle of a residential/agriculturally zoned area, that is surrounded by families, when the gas company already owns an 18 acre industrial site 10 miles away, with no residents for almost a mile, and the site held a compressor station in the past? Millennium Pipeline claims to the press that the alternative site would cause more environmental damage. We know this is a flat out lie, but you don’t need to take our word for it. FERC Chairman Wellinghoff and Commissioner LaFleur disagree with Millennium and have stated in their comments on the docket. ”

Saturday, February 16th Minsink residents held a rally across from the compressor station construction site. Several speakers to include, John Feal – President of the Fealgood Foundation, Tanyette Colon from Mothers United for Sustainable Technologies, Paul Gallay – President of Hudson Riverkeeper, Angela Fox from Mother’s Project, Dr. Larysa Dyrszka, Denise Katzman from the Sane Energy Project, and Dimock, PA resident and activist Vera Scroggins addressed the crowd of over 100 residents in support of a stay of construction. Minisink residents were moved by overwhelming support and are very thankful for their attendance.

After a long 18 months, the national media outlets have turned their attention on Minisink. Last week several news outlets, such as the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal Online, The Huffington Post, Fox News, and Miami Herald, covered the ongoing battle over the 12,260 horsepower compressor station currently being constructed only 650 feet from residences.